Only the Young

"Only the Young" is a charming, aimless film about the aimless. It plays like a nuanced MTV reality show (an oxymoron, perhaps, but you get the idea).

Like the appealing teenagers in this documentary, you may not know why you are in a given place at a given time, or what the point of this exercise is. There is no narrative structure, no cohesive themes to speak of - just teenagers hanging out in foreclosed homes, riding their skateboards, eating at a Christian park outing, chatting about mostly nothing in their bedrooms. Every time you think the film might be going somewhere, it doesn't.

Yet though things threaten to get tedious at times, it's clear that filmmakers Jason Tippet and Elizabeth Mims like their three main characters - Garrison, Kevin and Skye - and you will, too, as they while away their youth in Santa Clarita, which is about 30 miles from Los Angeles but might as well be 3,000.

The soft-spoken Garrison's timid sensibilities about the opposite sex are endearing, the boy-next-door Kevin is relatable as he struggles to find some direction in his life, and the gritty but vulnerable Skye, by far the most open of the bunch, is not afraid to reveal details about her absent parents and dating travails.

Moreover, the musical interludes (particularly in the final scene) are evocative, and Tippet shows great promise as a cinematographer. The opening shot, an overhead view of Garrison and Skye talking, may fool you into believing that you are watching a narrative film. Tippet's compositions, whether landscapes or people, are beautiful and give this film its much-needed sense of intimacy and delicacy.

All in all, there is plenty of filmmaking skill on the screen, though you may be left wondering whether the creators intended their movie to be about the aimless, or whether they were just as lost as the teenagers.